George Melies
| Georges Méliès | |
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Georges Méliès, c. 1890
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| Born |
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès 8 December 1861 Paris, France |
| Died | 21 January 1938 (aged 76) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Film director, actor, set designer, illusionist, toymaker, costume designer |
| Years active | 1888–1923 |
| Spouse(s) | Eugénie Génin (1885–1913; her death) (two children) Jeanne d'Alcy (1925–1938; his death) |
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Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, known as Georges Méliès (/meɪˈljɛs/;French: [meljɛs]; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938), was a French illusionist and film director who led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color. He was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards. His films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy.
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès was born 8 December 1861 in Paris to Jean-Louis-Stanislas Méliès and his Dutch wife, Johannah-Catherine Schuering. His father had moved to Paris in 1843 as a journeyman shoemaker and began working at a boot factory, where he met Méliès' mother. Johannah-Catherine's father had been the official bootmaker of the Dutch court before a fire ruined his business. She helped to educate Jean-Louis-Stanislas. Eventually the two married, founded a high-quality boot factory on the Boulevard Saint-Martin, and had sons Henri and Gaston; by the time of third son Georges' birth, the family had become wealthy.
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